Hollow sounds made by the lungs and heard through a stethoscope placed on a person’s chest, used in diagnosis.
The sounds heard through a stethoscope placed over the lungs during breathing. Normal breath sounds are soft and called vesicular, they may be increased or decreased in disease states. The sounds heard over the larger bronchi are louder and harsher. Breath sounds transmitted through consolidated lungs in pneumonia are louder and harsher; they are similar to the sounds heard normally over the larger bronchi and are termed bronchial breath sounds. Crepitations and ‘rhonchi are sounds added to the breath sounds in abnormal states of the lung. Amphoric or cavernous sounds have a hollow quality and are heard over cavities in the lung; the amphoric quality may also be heard in voice sounds and on percussion.
The transmitted sounds of breathing, heard when a stethoscope is applied to the chest. Normal breath sounds are described as vesicular. Abnormal sounds may be heard when there is increased fluid in the lungs or fibrosis (crepitation or crackles), when there is bronchospasm (rhonchi or wheezes), or when the lung is airless (consolidated — bronchial breathing). Breath sounds are absent in people with pleural effusion, pneumothorax, or after pneumonectomy.
Respiratory sounds heard on auscultation of the chest. In a normal chest, they are classified as vesicular, tracheal, and bronchovesicular.
The sound detected over the chest using a stethoscope while breathing.